Specialising in high-end, impeccably made acoustics, Ely, UK-based Jamie Swannell currently has one electric model in his catalogue, and he explains that it is named after “St Ia, who floated across the Irish Sea on a leaf. She landed in Cornwall and gave her name to St Ives, the town I grew up in.”
It was there that Jamie made his first electric guitar, while still at school, in his dad’s shed. Some years later his decision to follow the guitar-making life led him to Newark School of Musical Instrument Crafts where he graduated in 2015 with a Distinction and was invited to teach, which he did before totally focusing on his own guitars – mainly acoustic, with the exception of this very classy IA.
The 40mm deep body is actually constructed more like an acoustic, which accounts for its light weight of 2.31kg (5.1lb) with hand-bent ribs from cherry, like the back, which he laminates himself.
“It’s not a fully acoustic resonating top,” says Jamie. “It’s more like an ES-335 as there are two braces that come down either side of the neck and bridge blocks that are made from obeche.
“The rib structure is actually one piece of wood, which joins only at the base end of the guitar. It’s fun to make, but it means you don’t have a join in the heel area of the guitar. That upper bout that sweeps into the cutaway style was inspired by my mentor at Newark, Adrian Lucas, and he was inspired by Andy Manson.”
The neck is attached with three bolts and is made from reclaimed rift-sawn mahogany, while the compound radius fingerboard (241mm to 356mm/9.5 to 14 inches) is ‘fumed’ laburnum with a 635mm (25-inch) scale length.
Powering comes from three Sunbear Sunbird Firebird-style mini-humbuckers. These are mounted on the matt black Bakelite scratchplate with a simple five-way lever selector, master volume and tone.
The craft is faultless, very clean and precise, with superb fretting from medium-gauge wire with perfectly domed ‘hot dog’ ends. The IA uses Jamie’s standard neck profile, quite a wide-feeling shallow C that feels slightly asymmetrical.
There’s a touch of hollowbody snap to the response of the IA, but the instrument’s construction blurs the lines a little and the range of sounds that it can produce is quite extraordinary.
There’s characterful, bright old-blues honk at the bridge and lounge jazz at the neck, contrasted by a strummier Britpop jangle in the middle.
Cranked up a bit, the Sunbears seem to retain a bell-like chime and there’s a good dynamic range: it’s a very responsive guitar. It laps up some milder overdrive, which drops right into dirty blues and alt-rock and – not least due to the easy top-fret access – makes for a rather serious slide machine. The more we played it, the more sounds we found. Superb.
Builder Profile
- NAME: Swannell Guitars
- FOUNDER: Jamie Swannell
- LOCATION: Ely, Cambridgeshire
- STATUS: Founded 2016, now fully pro
- EMPLOYEES: None
- FIRST GUITAR SHIPPED: 2016
- Current Output: 8 instruments per year (total of 70 so far)
- STYLE: Currently offering 4 acoustic guitar models; our featured IA is the only electric with 10 made so far
- CAD/CNC: Yes, “a happy mixture of old and new technology”
- PICKUPS/HARDWARE: Mojo, Sunbear or customer’s preference
- FINISHING: In-house
- REPAIRS: Yes
- CUSTOM ORDERS: Yes, based on the pictured model/outline
- DEPOSIT/BUILD TIME: 25% deposit, approx 1 year to 18 months’ lead time
- WAITING LIST: Approx. 1 year
- DEALERS: Not currently
- PRICE-RANGE: Acoustic models from £8k (approx $10,800); the IA starts at £3,500 (approx $4,729)
- CONTACT: Swannell Guitars
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
